On a Cold, Dark Night
by Doc Sock
Summary: Jessica Jones/Luke Cage/Danny Rand/Matt Murdock: Matt hated winter.


**On a Cold, Dark Night**

Matt hated winter. When it snowed, the flakes burned against his skin, a sensation he learned to relegate to a buzzing annoyance in the back of his mind his first winter after the accident. The coat of white over everything, though, that he couldn't ignore. It dulled the sounds he used to move around, making everything strange and soft. He woke up every morning hoping that the bad guys would be sensible and stay inside until spring.

Every night he was disappointed.

But that's what friends were for. Luke and Danny, and even Jessica, were out there with him, having chased Hammerhead and his goons from the edge of Harlem to the edge of Hell's Kitchen.

He was pretty sure the dull sounds coming from over on the next rooftop meant that Danny and Luke were holding their own, and he could see Jessica taking out one goon after another on the street below. He was so busy making sure that his friends were still okay that he didn't see Hammerhead coming at him until it was too late.

The last thing he felt was a sharp pain blooming in his skull has Hammerhead head-butted him, and then a soft whump as he landed in a deep snow bank.

###

Jessica stamped her feet, trying to get some feeling back into her extremities as she waited for Luke and Danny to make it down from the rooftop. She was cold and exhausted, and wanted to go home for a nice, long, hot bath. It was still fucking snowing and freezing.

"Hey girl," Luke said as he thumped to the ground next to her. "Is Matt with you?"

"I thought he was with you guys," she said, gladly accepting the offer of his opened coat and burrowing against his side.

He flinched as she stuck her hands up under his shirt, warming them against his skin. "Your hands are fucking freezing."

"And you're nice and warm." She smiled sweetly up at him. When Danny landed quietly next to her, she turned toward him and asked, "Have you seen Matt?"

"Not since back on 36th. He and Hammerhead were up on top of the next building over from us. Then Hammerhead took off and I followed." He paused and looked up at the sky. "Do you think we should go find him?"

"Could be he just got held up," Luke said.

Jessica doubted that. Matt never got "held up" in all the time she'd known him. Which, admittedly, wasn't that long, but still. When they worked together, he always met them at the meeting spot and thanked them for helping him take care of whatever before disappearing. It wasn't like him to just disappear in the middle of a fight.

When she pointed this out, the three of them looked at each other, and then took off at a run for the last place they'd seen Matt.

The running, at least, warmed her up. She could feel the adrenaline pumping through her as they turned down street after street. If Matt was fine, she was going to fucking kill him.

The three of them skidded around the corner of the building they had last seen Matt on and stopped by a snow drift with one red-leather-clad arm sticking out.

"Matt," she breathed out. Danny was already dragging him out of the snowdrift and cradling his head in his lap. Luke had already whipped out his cell phone and was dialing the Night Nurse, she hoped as she dropped to the ground and tried to find a pulse. It was weak and thready against her fingers and his flesh was cold as ice. His fucking costume was soaked through and sticking to his skin the way wet leather did.

"She's not answering," Luke growled, shoving his phone back into his pocket.

"We need to get him warm," Jessica said, lightly touching the side of Matt's face. "Matt, Matt can you hear me?"

"Five mo… minnn'ts," he slurred. His lips were blue.

She felt tears pricking at her eyes.

"Don't lose it on us now," Luke said, and she whipped her head around to face him so fast her hair stung her cheek.

"I'm not-" she snapped. "There's no time for this, does he live around here?"

"A couple blocks over," Danny said, his voice thin and strained. "Luke, can you-"

"I got him." Luke picked up Matt and swung him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. "Lead the way."

They took as many back alleys as possible, moving as quickly as they could. It was still too fucking slow, as far as Jessica was concerned. They needed to be somewhere where they could get him warm _now_, not in ten, fifteen, twenty minutes. Danny led them up a fire escape and in through a window into a big, sparsely decorated apartment.

They found the bedroom and Luke held Matt up while Jessica and Danny peeled off his costume. His skin had a sickly blue tinge to it, and even though the apartment was cool, Matt wasn't shivering. They tucked him into the bed, Luke finding a linen closet and dumping more blankets on top of him to hold in whatever heat his body was still producing.

"We need to get him warmer," she said desperately, looking between the two of them.

"How-" Danny started, and stopped when Luke just looked at him. "Oh. Yeah, okay."

The three of them stripped down to their underwear. Jessica was glad that Matt had such a big bed as she slipped in, with Danny on one side of her and Luke on the other side of Matt. His skin was so _cold_. It was like trying to curl around a heap of ice. It took a bit of jostling to find a comfortable position, and soon Jessica was sweating under the pile of blankets, but Matt was still still and cold and faintly blue. Luke was pressed against the other side of him, and Danny had stretched an arm around her to run his hand up and down Matt's rib cage slowly, giving him what heat he could.

Luke tried the Night Nurse again and shook his head in disgust. Jessica almost suggested taking him to a hospital, even though she knew, she _knew_ they couldn't risk it. The three of them settled in for a long night.

###

"Matt. Matt." The voice pierced the nice rest he was having, dragging him out of it only enough to half-open his eyes. He was burning, fire running up and down his sides. He tried to struggle away from it, only to be pressed down onto the bed. His body wasn't responding to him right; he felt slow and sluggish, and he couldn't move his arms properly.

"Matt, drink this." Someone tipped the glass to his lips. The liquid was burning hot, but he drank it anyway. It coursed down his gullet, like he was drinking liquid fire. He tried to lift his arm to push the glass away, but it was too heavy.

At once, his body unlocked and he started to shake violently, tremors running through his body so violently some of the liquid splashed out of the cup and onto him. He tried to shout at the pain, both from the burn of the water – he was pretty sure it was just hot water – and the pain of the shivers wracking his body.

He passed out.

###

Matt woke up to a lub-dub sound pounding in his ear. His entire body ached like he'd been worked over by one of the Kingpin's men the night before. His head was on someone's chest, thus the pounding he could hear, and there were two other distinct heartbeats besides that one and his own.

He was in his own bed, with three other people. He froze.

The heartbeats, after listening to them for a few panic-filled moments, resolved into those of Luke, Danny, and Jessica. From what he could tell, his head was on Danny's chest. Danny's naked chest.

He slid upright, biting off a whimper at the ache in every joint. From what he could tell, Danny and Luke, at least, were naked. He wasn't going to check under the sheets to make sure. His head was still pounding, now with its own internal beat. There was a sore spot on the back of his skull, with a lump the size of a small egg. The smell of dried sweat filled his nostrils.

He couldn't remember anything about last night, but it appeared he had an orgy with Jessica, Danny, and Luke.

###

Luke woke up gradually, warm and comfortable with Danny and Jessica curled around him. By the time he remembered the events of the night before, he was already realizing that he wasn't in their apartment and this wasn't his bed.

His eyes snapped open, and his hand reached out to where Matt had been last night, before it registered that Matt wasn't in the bed anymore. So Luke got up and pulled on his clothes, and went out to find him and make sure he was okay.

He found Matt sitting at his kitchen table, his head propped up in his hands, a tall glass of water and a bottle of aspirin in front of him.

"What happened last night?" Matt asked before he could say anything.

"You don't remember? We had an orgy," Luke joked. Matt's face changed from pained to something that was almost… _happy_. A small smile passed over his lips and he straightened up a little.

Oh _fuck_.

"What or- owwww." Danny came up behind him and Luke kicked him in the shin before he could say anything to ruin that calm, happy look on Matt's face. He jerked his head at Matt, and when Danny got a look at him, he said, "Uh, stubbed my, uh, toe. Mornin' Matt. What do you have for breakfast here?"

###

Matt should have known it was too good to be true. But he didn't question the warmth that bloomed in his chest when Luke told him the four of them had had sex the night before. He did try to keep the ridiculous grin off his face, though. He was pretty sure he managed to do that.

Still, he should have known something wasn't right when Luke went to wake up Jessica, and he could hear the scratching of pen across paper. He was too busy relaxing into Danny's hands on his shoulders, massaging some of the pain away, to think too much about it.

And when Jessica came out, already dressed just like Luke and Danny, and came over to kiss him on the cheek, he should have known that wasn't right. Then she was touching the bump on the back of his head and asking him what he remembered from last night and if he felt okay, and he wasn't really thinking of anything other than how he wanted to wake up like that every morning.

"You had a brush with hypothermia," Jessica said, her warm hand still cupping the back of his head. "We think Hammerhead knocked you out."

"I… think I remember that," he said. "But I don't-"

"Don't worry about it," Luke said. "We got 'em all anyway, and you're fine."

He should have known then that the ache was from hypothermia, not a night of athletic sex to keep him warm. Instead, he turned his face to kiss Jessica's palm and leaned back into Danny's hands as his thumbs dug into his shoulder muscles.

He should have at least suspected something when Danny followed him into the other room when he went to get a sweater, still a little cold.

When he turned around, Danny laughed a little and said, "You can't really believe we had an orgy."

He froze, feeling the color drain from his face and then be replaced with a flush of angry embarrassment. Of course, he thought dully. Of course it wasn't true. He should have _known_.

###

As soon as the words left his mouth, Danny knew that he had screwed up big time. Matt went quiet and _still_, his face turning white and then red, completely expressionless. Before he could say anything, Matt was brushing past him and out the front door, tossing back an "I have to go," that sounded like one word.

"Um, guys," he said when he came out of the bedroom after the apartment's door slammed shut. "I maybe did something _really horrible_."

Luke was just staring at him, and Jessica's eyebrows were drawn together in her scary frown that said she was considering fucking him up good.

"I thought he knew it was a joke!" he said. "I mean, how could he think all morning that he wouldn't remember sex with us! But, um, I guess he didn't?"

They were still staring at him.

"And, uh, I think he's really upset," he finished lamely.

Jessica collapsed heavily in one of the kitchen chairs. "You know what this means, don't you?" she asked. "We have to have an orgy, and it's _all your fault_."

###

Matt sometimes forgot that it was he who was sucked under the metaphorical bus at times. It was a Sunday, but he let himself into his office anyway; he didn't know where else to go. He slumped behind his desk taking off his tinted shades and rubbing his hands over his face.

He tried to ignore the hollow feeling in his chest.

How could he have been so _stupid_? Of course Luke had been joking. The three of them were probably somewhere now, laughing at him. "Poor pathetic Matt, thought we actually wanted him."

The hollow pain in his chest grew. It felt like he was going to suffocate under the weight of it. He hadn't known that feeling empty could hurt so much. He thought they were his _friends_. But friends weren't cruel. Friends didn't wake up in the morning and think to themselves "I know, let's play a joke on Matt today! Let's make him feel-" His thoughts came to an abrupt halt as he refused to continue on to that word. TO any of the words that could complete that sentence.

Wanted, a treacherous part of his mind whispered. Needed. Lo-

He hurled a paperweight across the room, the crash it made against the wall reigniting the throbbing in his head. So they weren't his friends. So they thought they could play games with him. So they had been secretly laughing at him the whole morning. So what? It wasn't like he needed them.

No matter how viciously he repeated it, a small part of him refused to be convinced, and it _hurt_.

###

The plan was so fucking simple she couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. Step one, find Matt. Step two, make Luke apologize _profusely_. Step three, the three of them sex him up. Step one wasn't supposed to be giving them an unholy amount of trouble, God damn it.

Matt was good at making himself scarce when he wanted to. They even tried going to his office, but every time they showed up, Foggy told them he'd just left. Even at night, when he should have been patrolling the city, they couldn't find him.

It was the most fucking frustrating thing she'd ever experienced.

Danny had said something about using the skills he gained in K'un Lun to try to find Matt tonight. Jessica waited until he was out of hearing range to scoff about that. Danny couldn't just magically ninja Matt up.

It took them two more days to find him, and it was Danny who finally did.

"Admit it," Luke said over the phone as they walked to the cross streets Danny was at. "You weren't even looking for him. You just ran into him."

Jessica could hear a tiny voice yelling "Get off of me!" from the cell phone, and she grabbed it away from Luke. "What are you doing to him, Danny?"

"Um," he said. "I sort of tripped over him literally. And, well. Sitting on him seemed like as good a way as any to-"

"You're not supposed to be pissing him off more," she told him, and handed the phone back to Luke before she could hear his reply. Of course Danny would be _sitting on Matt_. That made perfect sense.

Maybe it was time to trade Danny for Matt. The relationship couldn't possibly be more frustrating if it were Matt instead of Danny.

When they rounded the corner, she saw Danny had let Matt up, and had him pinned against the wall with a hand on either side of his head, talking earnestly to him. She would wager anything that the only reason Matt hadn't taken off was that he didn't want to physically hurt Danny.

Danny pointed to them as they walked up, saying, "We talked about it and sometimes four is better than three, at least it's worth a shot."

"I don't-" Matt started to say before Danny kissed him.

It lasted a mere second, before Matt shoved him away, snarling, "I don't want your pity fuck."

The anger and pain in his voice made something twist, deep inside her gut. She forced it down and stepped forward, saying, "I'm sorry you think you're important enough to deserve a pity fuck from us."

Matt twisted toward her, his mouth warped in a furious grimace. Whatever it was twisted again, and she stepped forward. Very carefully, very slowly, she lifted her hand and reached out to cup his cheek, rubbing her thumb across his skin. He leaned into her touch for the briefest moment before jerking away with a harsh, "No."

"Luke's sorry," she said, glancing back at Luke until he muttered a sorry. "I'm sorry, too, for going along with it."

"Me too," Danny said from a safe distance away. "Sorry."

"Apologies accepted," Matt said stiffly, but his mouth was still a thin, hard line. She didn't think this was working.

Her fears were confirmed as he pushed away from the wall and started to walk away, being careful not to touch them.

"Matt, wait," she called desperately. "Plan B, you guys."

They didn't give him a chance to resist, just like she'd planned it. Within seconds he had zip ties around his wrists and ankles, and was slung over Luke's shoulder.

"What are you-" he sputtered. "You can't- _Put me down._"

"Don't make us knock you out," she said sweetly. "At this point, you can't be sure what we'll do."

He quieted down long enough for them to get back to his apartment. They went in through the same window they had that night, to Matt's indignant sputters. Danny began rummaging in his closet as Luke dropped him on the bed and Jessica, ignoring his yelp, sat down on the edge.

"You can still think this is a pity fuck if you want," she told him, as he tried to squirm free of his bonds. "But we don't do that. The more we talk about it, the more we-" she liked her lips "-want you. And yeah, we shouldn't have let you keep thinking Luke was serious, but it was so nice to be able to touch you whenever we wanted."

She glanced over at Danny, who was handing Luke a handful of ties, for confirmation.

"Yeah," he said. "We're pretty much selfish jerks. And we're going to tie you to the bed now so you can't escape, okay?"

"Does it matter?" Matt spat, but she could see him weakening, see the hard lines of his body softening into compliance even as she could see him trying to hold on to his anger.

"Not really," Danny said cheerfully, and set about stripping Matt in a purely utilitarian way while Luke took care of binding Matt's hands and feet to the bedposts with his ties. "Hey, we'll even do your laundry for you to make up for using your ties for this."

"Gee, thanks," Matt said sarcastically, curling his hands around the fabric stretching his arms out and testing their give. Jessica thought Luke had left enough for Matt to be comfortable, which was confirmed when Matt relaxed back against the bed.

"Look," she said. "You're going to like this whether you want to or not, so you might as well stop being so fucking stubborn and enjoy the fact that I could probably come just from looking at you."

His head turned toward her, colorless eyes staring somewhere above her left shoulder. A blush started on his cheeks and spread down across his chest. She wanted to follow it with her hands, smoothing her palms down his body and skirting teasingly around his cock.

When Luke, already stripped down to his boxers, climbed onto the bed and put his hands on either side of Matt's face, cradling his head between them in a gesture so tender it made her heart ache.

"If you say stop, we'll stop," he said.

Matt licked his lips. "Uh," he said hoarsely. "Is that a one-time offer or through the whole thing?"

A laugh rumbled out of Luke. "Through the whole thing."

It was fascinating to watch the tension leak out of Matt's body until he was lying boneless on the bed. Well, not _entirely_ boneless… There was still a frown on his face, though, but by the way his brow was furrowed, Jessica would almost say he was _sulking_.

She decided to wipe that look off his face. Luke sat back on his heels watching as she shimmied out of her shirt and pants. She unclasped her bra, letting the straps fall off her shoulders and letting the entire thing fall to the ground with a quiet thump, then sliding down her panties with a rustle of fabric.

Matt's lips were parted, and he was breathing faster.

Danny let out a low whistle and said, "You get more and more beautiful every time I see you."

"Relax, Danny, you're getting some tonight, too," she said, and he laughed. Matt jumped at the sound, tensing for a moment before relaxing again.

Jessica sashayed over to the bed, looking up at Luke from under her eyelashes, a wicked grin on her face. She crawled up next to Matt, dragging her fingers up his side. His muscles were fluttering under his skin.

"Danny," she said in a low voice, looking over her shoulder at him. "Come on."

She turned back to Matt and bent over him, brushing her lips against his and just breathing for a moment. He tilted his head up, just the slightest bit, to bring their lips more firmly together. Danny made a noise of want behind her, and she heard Luke moving across the bed to Danny's side. As she deepened the kiss with Matt, flicking her tongue against his lips and running a hand down his side until he gasped and let her in, she could hear the sound of Luke's lips moving wetly against Danny's.

Even as she was teasing his mouth with her tongue, she could feel the frown on his face, and when she broke away, he moved to follow her, but his brow was still furrowed slightly.

"You are _not_ sulking while we try to have sex with you," she said, sitting back on her heels.

"I'm not sulking," he sulked. "You can't sulk during sex. It's not possible."

"Then _why are you doing it_?"

He glared at her, and she suddenly understood why he wore tinted glasses all the time. His glare wasn't nearly as effective when his milky pupils were technically glaring at her shoulder.

"Matt," she said, reaching forward and cupping his cheek again. This time he leaned into her touch as he had weeks ago. She rubbed a thumb across his kiss-swollen lips, letting it slip in when he opened his mouth. Whatever she was going to say was lost as he sucked gently on her thumb, the sensations shooting straight to her clit. She leaned over him, shivering at the electric thrills that coursed through her as her nipples brushed his chest hair. When he gasped, she took the opportunity to replace her thumb with her tongue.

She could feel Danny and Luke moving around on the bed. Matt gasped again, his head dropping back against the pillow. She took the opportunity to kiss a line up his neck and nip at his earlobe. The muscles in his neck corded, and she could see him biting back a noise.

When she looked down his body, she could see Danny right there, alternately sucking on and blowing cool air across his nipple. Luke was kneeling between his thighs, nuzzling the inside of his thighs and soothing the burn with slow licks of his tongue, but studiously ignoring his cock.

She leaned back down to suck on his earlobe, on hand sliding down through his chest hair to find one rock-hard nub of a nipple. As she rubbed her thumb across it, he let out a hiss of air and she could feel his hips stutter upward.

She pinched it, and he hissed again, this time saying, "Not so hard."

"Sorry," she murmured, and soothed it with her thumb. She began to lick her way down his neck, her hand sliding lower as she did.

He moaned when she skirted around his cock and said, "I can feel- I can feel you grinning."

That just made her grin harder. Danny moved up to swallow Matt's increasingly frequent moans. It fascinated her how even the slightest touch was enough to get some noise out of him.

She and Luke met in the crease of his hip, and she turned her head, letting her hair fall over his cock as she kissed Luke. Matt's groan and his aborted attempts to thrust his hips barely registered with her as she delved into Luke's mouth.

Luke broke away to run his hands up Matt's sides. Jessica could see little tremors running through Matt's stomach muscles and rippling across his chest and down his side at each slow, smooth stroke of Luke's hands. His own hands were fisted around the ties binding them to the bedposts, his knuckles white.

He was panting, his head thrown back and his eyes closed, looking lost in the sensations of Luke's hands and Danny's mouth on him. It was the hottest thing Jessica had ever seen.

She circled her clit with her fingers while she watched them, not giving into the urge to touch just yet.

"Oh fuck, Matt," she said, her hips rocking forward as she brushed a finger over her clit. "Do you have any idea how fucking hot you are right now?"

He writhed against the bedsheets, completely beyond the ability to answer her.

"I've never seen someone get as into it as you." She rocked her hips forward again, pressing against her fingers, thighs trembling. She used her thumb to keep the pressure on her clit as she started sliding two fingers in and out of herself. "It's so fucking hot knowing Luke and Danny and I can make you lose it so completely."

She bit her lip, circling her clit with her thumb and thrusting her fingers upwards harder. Moisture was dripping down the inside of her legs. "I'm so fucking wet right now."

She watched as Luke reached down and closed one hand around Matt's cock and one hand around his own. Danny had been stroking himself lazily for some time now, and didn't look anywhere near close to finishing. But as Luke's hand touched Matt's cock, Matt's eyes flew open and he managed to get "St-" out before he was shouting and coming in a thick splatter of semen.

Jessica thrust her fingers up inside herself once more, grinding down on her clit at the same time and crooking her fingers forward, and her own orgasm exploded through her. She slumped down across Matt, panting as hard as he was, sated for the time being. She didn't notice when Luke and Danny came, but they must have because soon enough all three of them were draped across the bed, touching some part of Matt.

When she got her breath back, she reached up and loosened the knot around each of his wrists. He slipped his hands out, the skin on his wrists slightly reddened even though she knew Danny had chosen the softest ties, and dropped a hand into her hair as she curled up between him and Luke.

The four of them fell asleep.

###

Matt woke up to a lub-dub sound pounding in his ear. His entire body ached like he'd been worked over by one of the Kingpin's men the night before. His head was on someone's chest, thus the pounding he could hear, and there were two other distinct heartbeats besides that one and his own.

He was in his own bed, with three other people. He froze.

The heartbeats, after listening to them for a few panic-filled moments, resolved into those of Luke, Danny, and Jessica. From what he could tell, his head was on Danny's chest. Danny's naked chest.

The smell of dried sweat and sex filled his nostrils. The bed itself was rank with dried sweat and semen and other juices. He relaxed back into the pile of human bodies anyway, allowing himself to snuggle against Danny and pull Jessica's arm over his waist.

He could sleep for five minutes more.

END


End file.
